


Power

by starshinedown



Series: Ten Quotes Challenge [4]
Category: Twilight - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: 10 Quotes Challenge, Gen, Pre-Canon, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-04
Updated: 2011-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-14 10:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starshinedown/pseuds/starshinedown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Edward contemplates the meaning of power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Power

**Author's Note:**

> Movie/quote: "Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't." - Schindler's List (1993) AFI# 08  
> Disclaimer: I don't own, and don't make any profit from, Twilight or the Twilight characters. They are the property of Stephenie Meyer.  
> Author's Notes: Takes place pre-series. Thank you, AccioBourbon, for pre-reading this and offering your input! *smooches*

**1924**

Edward has learned, in his short years as a vampire, to have a love-hate relationship with his ability to read minds.

He is never alone in his own head unless he is well and truly alone in fact. The thoughts of people, and vampires, bombard him endlessly, and it is easy to imagine a time when his sanity will slip, and he will stop knowing where the boundary between  _me_  and  _not-me_  exists. In this way, it is a curse. He has had to learn to master his expression so that others don't know he hears every little thing that flits across their conscious minds. It is a trial, and he hates it.

When people speak to him, it is never only their words that he hears, never  _just_  the story they want to tell him. In addition he has access to imagery, remembered emotions, and adjacent, errant thoughts that give each story and story-teller added dimension. In some cases, this is a burden. In other cases, though, as when Carlisle is speaking of his long life, it is a blessing. Never hearing just the words, he sees the people as Carlisle remembers them; mannerisms, clothing, hair, and the society in which they lived. In these times his telepathy is something he embraces, and he loves it.

"Aro is the leader," Carlisle tells him, and with the statement comes a perfect memory of a being who has the outer trappings of a human-two eyes, a nose, a mouth, a human shape-but who, with his thin onion-like skin, fierce red eyes, and preternatural poise is very clearly vampire in a way that Carlisle and Edward and Esme can not hope to be. Through Carlisle's memories of this Aro, Edward sees that the sense of otherness comes from the creature's great age, his position, and his whole-hearted embrace of what he believes being vampire truly means.

Carlisle continues as Edward delves into his mind, picking up the extra information that the blond vampire is not telling him. "The other two leading members of the Volturi are Marcus and Caius. They rule their city, and vampires around the world, with little sense of mercy. Their decisions inevitably cause them to solidify their own power and keep other vampires from exposing us to the humans. You must remember their rules, Edward, if you wish to live a long life as an immortal." A string of images flicker through Carlisle's mind; vampire supplicant after supplicant, torn to pieces by Volturi enforcers for angering Aro or breaking the laws the coven had laid down.

Edward sees the greed of Aro, the indifference of Marcus, the way Caius uses one to manipulate the other. Carlisle's memories of the Volturi quashing rebellions all over the known world, enforcing vampire law, flood his mind, and for a moment he is lost in it. "They're so powerful," he says quietly. He can't decide if he's horrified or in awe, and he knows as he speaks that his voice reflects the conflict.

"Not as I see it," Carlisle answers. "Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't. Aro and the others, they kill at their whim and have never taken the time to learn the power of mercy."

And Edward sees the great power that Carlisle wields in the hospital, helping humans recover from injury. He can compare Carlisle's choice to preserve life-a choice he has made over and over and over again since he became vampire nearly three centuries before-with the other vampires' choice to take life at seemingly every turn. He can see already that Esme will follow in their maker's footsteps. She views their new life as a gift, and her temperament is such that she sees mercy as the greatest power, second only to love. Edward wonders, in the crowded images and borrowed memories of his mind, how he will choose to demonstrate the power he has as vampire.

The wave after wave of memory and choice overwhelm him, and he darts from the room, running to the lightly wooded land behind their home to regain some internal silence. The blessing has become the curse again, and he sits on the fog-dampened ground, half hating himself for what he is, and the choices he must make. He doesn't think he's strong enough to view power in any manner but that of the Volturi.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 10_quotes community on LiveJournal. From their profile page: "The deal is to pick a pairing/character of your choice, and write 10 fics about them. BUT, the twist is you have to write them around the specific prompts you have chosen, which are quotes from the AFI's current list of 100 Greatest Movies."


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